Should You Change Your Website Popups For Holiday?

Whether you’re currently using website popups, or you’re intrigued by the idea of them, it’s worth noting that evidence does exist that shows popups increase online conversion rate optimization in everything from sales to newsletter signups. This is increasingly true during the holidays when your web traffic most likely increases exponentially.

Shopify, the eCommerce solution chosen by many online retailers, says test after test has proven that popups work extremely well. In one test, popups drove 1,375% more email captures vs. a sidebar opt-in form.

In this article, we’re going to assume you’re onboard with website popups and answer the question, “Should you change your website popups for holiday?” We’ll also give you some ideas for holiday website popups.

So, should you change your website popups for the holidays? Yes! You most certainly should. This is the perfect opportunity to catch new visitors and leads and honor your loyal customers as well.

Changing out your website popups for the holidays will increase your conversion rate and position your site to increase business over the holidays.

Website Popup Types

First, let’s talk about the different kinds of popups you could have on your site. Usually online retailers include these on their landing pages. Sometimes they show up when the visitor first arrives on your landing page, but more often, they show up when a visitor tries to leave the landing page.

Popup types abound. Here’s a few:

Email Sign Up

Social Media

Promotions

Featured Products – these could be daily features or weekly features.

Ideas for Holiday Popups

Our first suggestion for your holiday website popups is to make them look festive. Set them apart from your regular website popups so your visitors are being met with something new, unique and appropriate to the season.

Holiday Gift Guide – you could offer this as visitors land or exit your site. Give them the download of the gift guide after they’ve shared their email with you. You’ll entice them to stay or come back to your site by pointing them in the right direction for completing their shopping. After all, everyone likes a bit of holiday shopping help.

Form fields – the general rule is less is better. You can test form field positions.

The user escape route – we like ones that include a “no thanks” button or one that says something like, “No, I don’t want to enter to win a free shopping spree.” These types of escape routes often convince visitors to take your preferred route.

Copy – again, short, to the point – what is the direct benefit to the customer for taking the action? Test and evaluate.

Call to action – skip the word “submit.” Try something more specific to the action you want them to take, like “Get your free holiday gift guide now.”

Making the Holiday Popup Work for Your Business

If you’ve decided to change your website popups for the holiday season, you’ll want to pay attention to two vital features of successful website popups.

Timing is one of the most important aspects of your website popup. You can reach your customer the minute they hit your landing page, after a preset amount of time, or when they complete an action on your website. This completed action could be after they’ve viewed a certain page, or when they are just about to jump off your site.

Popups are often annoying when they are shown to a visitor first landing on your site. If you popup too soon, you keep your visitors from seeing enough of your content to even decide they want to see more. So, you’re actually jumping the gun. If you popup too late, you’ll miss your visitor altogether.

Website testers have found the sweet spot. It appears that the best time for a popup is 60 seconds into a website visit. This is enough time to optimize your conversion rate and get the best response. We encourage you to test, test and test again, as the best timing can vary from site to site.

Next, you want to choose the right message. This is where the holiday tone comes in. You’re basically creating an ad, so your image should be interesting and appropriate to the holiday. Your copy should be simple, to the point and provide a clear and direct benefit. Finally, it should have a strong call to action. You only have a second to catch their attention, so use your time wisely.

The Best Popups

The secret to the best popups is relevance. In order to avoid annoying your website visitor, your holiday popup needs to make sense and contain a measure of personalization. The personalized message converts better than the vague, general message.

The best popups are also tested, evaluated, and tested some more. What may have worked all year long for your website popups may work differently during the holidays. You may find it easier or more difficult to grab the conversion from the website popup.

To Conclude

Lastly, remember that your holiday website popups have to offer your website visitor something that demands their attention. They have to see the disturbance to their normal website reading pattern as worth it.

Your holiday website popups will be more successful if they are relevant and on target to your visitors.

Have you tried changing your website popups during the holidays? If so, what worked and what didn’t work? Do you have great ideas for holiday popups? We’d love to hear about them here!

Not sure how to implement popups for website conversion optimization? Contact us today. We’ll provide you with our FREE site performance analysis to help you decipher what to change and how!

4 thoughts on “Should You Change Your Website Popups For Holiday?”

Super targeted lightbox based on utm targeting: if a New visitor searches for “holiday gift guides for 5 year old boy” and they click on an SEM click, the first thing they see when they land on a site is a lightbox of “top 3 products for 5 year old boys – bonus: get 10% off anything when you join our newsletter – Today Only”

Hi Fabiola! Great question. First, I would say consistency and continuity of message and design are important to always consider. Second, I tend to be a pragmatist and realist. I recommend to “try fast”. Meaning changing the pop up could be a fast test, while changing the design of your site could be a long drawn out project. So I’d focus on the pop up messaging and design to be at of the same “website brand”, and go from there. Just test it. 😉 hopefully that helps a bit.

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